Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Now for those of you who are watching online, just
Speaker 1: so you can know what I'm up against. In a minute, listen,
Speaker 1: how excited these people already hear God's work today. Let's
Speaker 1: see what I'm dealing with. Right for me, it's a mess.
Speaker 1: Not get a loud I gotta stop screaming. I still
Speaker 1: got a freak Praise the Lord. Amen. So we're continuing
Speaker 1: this week. Be seated. That's not a suggestion, it's command.
Speaker 1: Be seated. Let me look at you. See if you've
Speaker 1: been reading your Bible or not. Some of these people
Speaker 1: hadn't seen. In a minute, see if you've been drinking
Speaker 1: or you know, to see if you've been on the
Speaker 1: cable channels late at night or in the word of God.
Speaker 1: I gotta check y'all out it. What's the state of
Speaker 1: the flock? I want to I want to go into
Speaker 1: One person was saying on YouTube. It's not a laughing time,
Speaker 1: don't you know what's going on in the world around me?
Speaker 1: And I had to restrain myself not to comment back.
Speaker 1: The joy of the Lord is my strength if I
Speaker 1: don't find something to rejoice about, like Paul in that
Speaker 1: prison cell. You know, Paul, this is not the time
Speaker 1: to be rejoicing. This is the time to be repenting. Well,
Speaker 1: repent means change your mind. That's what he's teaching us
Speaker 1: how to do right in this season. Last week we
Speaker 1: talked about take control of your mind. Take it. Somebody
Speaker 1: say take it. And we're really looking at three questions
Speaker 1: from Philippians, one that are so powerful that they are
Speaker 1: pretty much running your emotions, whether you know it or not,
Speaker 1: like how software runs your phone or whatever. I don't
Speaker 1: know how it works, but I do know this these
Speaker 1: three questions, and I'll give them to you again. What
Speaker 1: does it matter? What shall I choose? And what does
Speaker 1: it mean? Those are questions that your mind is always answering.
Speaker 1: How you answer those determines whether or not you live
Speaker 1: in a state of defeat or freedom. And that's not
Speaker 1: my opinion. That's the teaching that Paul gives us in
Speaker 1: Philippians I should warn you up front. I had to
Speaker 1: bring two Bibles to preach the sermon today. Do not
Speaker 1: be afraid. But I got something to say and God
Speaker 1: gave it to me, so I'm confident about it. One
Speaker 1: is in the New Testament from Philippians chapter one, where
Speaker 1: we were last week. And then I also want to
Speaker 1: show you something in Genesis fifty in Philippians one, and
Speaker 1: we'll just pick up right where we left off last
Speaker 1: week where he says, but what does it matter? Remember
Speaker 1: that how that question can eliminate a lot of the
Speaker 1: things that we pray about if we get the right priorities,
Speaker 1: and how it also can keep us from, you know,
Speaker 1: giving our resources to things that we'll regret later. One
Speaker 1: of the things God has been doing in this season,
Speaker 1: whether you realize it or not, as helping you redirect
Speaker 1: your resources. Because when He eliminates things from your life
Speaker 1: in a way that is that is a gift, the
Speaker 1: gift of elimination. And one author said that trials tightly
Speaker 1: focus your life. So that's been happening, and it was
Speaker 1: happening for Paul because he's like, well, if I focus
Speaker 1: on the things I'm uncertain about, I'm probably going to
Speaker 1: get I'm going to get in so much confusion that
Speaker 1: I will start to doubt what God is doing through me.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to choose to write off the things
Speaker 1: I can control. And remember when he said what does
Speaker 1: it matter? He was talking about the motives of people
Speaker 1: who were preaching about Jesus for the wrong reasons. And
Speaker 1: that perplexed me because I thought, well, it does matter
Speaker 1: what people's motives are when they're preaching. And Paul said, well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter as much. Somebody say that in the
Speaker 1: Chat as much. Their motive doesn't matter as much as
Speaker 1: God's mission. So while my mind is constantly fighting the
Speaker 1: battle of what matters, this matters and that matters, it
Speaker 1: brings me back to the realization that some things matter more.
Speaker 1: He's saying, what matters more is that in every way,
Speaker 1: whether from false motives or true. Okay, and this is
Speaker 1: going to be really parallel with the Genesis fifty passage,
Speaker 1: So underline that, ob so you can rip it off
Speaker 1: in three months, whether from false motives or true, with
Speaker 1: my full permission, I will make it better to Christ
Speaker 1: is preached. The important thing is what matters more? What
Speaker 1: matters most to Paul, not to us other stuff matters
Speaker 1: more to us, no matter what we say with our lives,
Speaker 1: sometimes we demonstrate that other stuff matters more. But to Paul,
Speaker 1: it was like the Gospel, the good News about Jesus,
Speaker 1: what he's doing his kingdom. You know all these things
Speaker 1: that we can say. But the substance of Paul's faith
Speaker 1: was that the mission the purpose of God mattered more
Speaker 1: for him than his preference or either other people's motives,
Speaker 1: which he could not control. So he said, I've chosen
Speaker 1: to focus. I have chosen watch this to rejoice. Make
Speaker 1: the choice to rejoice. All right, it rhymes it must
Speaker 1: be true, yes, and I will continue to rejoice. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna keep doing it. I did it, I am doing it,
Speaker 1: and I will continue to do it. Somebody said I
Speaker 1: did it, I am doing it, and I will continue
Speaker 1: to do it. Tell the devil, I did it, I
Speaker 1: am doing it, and I will continue to do it.
Speaker 1: I will continue to rejoice for I know that through
Speaker 1: your prayers and God's provision resource of the Spirit of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, what has happened to me resistance the Spirit
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ resource provision, you see it, the provision
Speaker 1: of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Resource, what has happened
Speaker 1: to me? Prison? Sentence? Resistance? Write it down. The resource
Speaker 1: is greater than the resistance. And I need you to
Speaker 1: know that. Child of God, I need you to know that.
Speaker 1: He said, I know this. I don't know what they're
Speaker 1: gonna do with me. I'm still waiting to find out.
Speaker 1: I don't know. In fact, it was so bad for Paul.
Speaker 1: He wasn't like, I don't know if they were going
Speaker 1: to keep me on furlough. He's like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if they're going to keep me on earth. Festus handed
Speaker 1: me over to Caesar's I'm not even in control of this,
Speaker 1: but he sounds remarkably in command of the condition of
Speaker 1: his soul, and I want to learn how to do that,
Speaker 1: he said Verse twenty. No, no, I can't leave this behind.
Speaker 1: We'll turn out for my deliverance. I don't want to
Speaker 1: leave that out. Deliverance is a major theme in the scripture,
Speaker 1: all the way from Moses and the Exodus to Jesus
Speaker 1: on the Cross to Paul in this prison. And yet
Speaker 1: it's not so much for Paul about God bringing him out.
Speaker 1: It's about God's spirit getting in inward deliverance. So he said,
Speaker 1: I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no
Speaker 1: way be ashamed that's internal, but will have sufficient courage
Speaker 1: that's internal, so that now, as always, Christ will be
Speaker 1: exalted in my body. That's internal. External can't control internal.
Speaker 1: I will continue to rejoice. This is the distinction, he said,
Speaker 1: whether by life or by death, yell all right if
Speaker 1: I teach the Bible, because this weather or construct means
Speaker 1: I'm okay either way. And so he's not talking about
Speaker 1: I'm okay if I have to park at the front
Speaker 1: or the back of Target's talking about I'm okay if
Speaker 1: I go to heaven or if I stay here. I'm
Speaker 1: not there yet. I am not there yet. I want
Speaker 1: to stay around. But Paul's like, I'm okay either way.
Speaker 1: Now say it by faith, I'm okay either way. This
Speaker 1: is the spirit of Paul's faith. It wasn't manipulation. It
Speaker 1: was acceptance. It was embracing what God is doing in
Speaker 1: this moment, not escaping, embracing, Thank you Jesus. So I'm
Speaker 1: counting on courage, not counting on circumstances. I'm counting on courage.
Speaker 1: I'm counting on Christ to me, And this was the
Speaker 1: only verses that I really meant to read, but I
Speaker 1: got all caught up there in the other ones. For
Speaker 1: to me, somebody say to me, For to me, to
Speaker 1: live is Christ and to die is Gain. If I'm
Speaker 1: to go on living, if they don't cut my head off,
Speaker 1: if they let me have a few more years, not sure.
Speaker 1: But if I am to go on living in the body,
Speaker 1: this will mean fruitful labor for me. So you saw
Speaker 1: what does it matter? And now Paul is showing us
Speaker 1: what does it mean? Wdim, what does it mean? He said,
Speaker 1: If I am to go on living, this will mean
Speaker 1: fruitful labor for me. If I am to go on living,
Speaker 1: this will mean And we'll focus there today. But I
Speaker 1: got to put this with it. He said, Yet, what
Speaker 1: shall I choose? I do not know. Now go to
Speaker 1: Genesis fifty, Genesis fifty. Somebody say, what does it matter?
Speaker 1: What does it mean? What shall I choose? Genesis fifty,
Speaker 1: verse nineteen. But Joseph said to them, do not fear,
Speaker 1: for am I in the place of God. As for
Speaker 1: you you meant evil against me, but God meant it.
Speaker 1: You have permission to shout. You have permission to shout.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have permission to shout, just as Joseph said,
Speaker 1: as for you, you you meant evil against me, but God
Speaker 1: meant it for good to bring it about. Yeah. There
Speaker 1: it goes when you realize that that purpose of God
Speaker 1: in every situation is very powerful. He said, you meant
Speaker 1: it for evil, but God meant it for good to
Speaker 1: bring it about. That many people should be kept alive
Speaker 1: as they are today, So do not fear. I will
Speaker 1: provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted
Speaker 1: them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph remained in
Speaker 1: each he and his father's house. Joseph lived one hundred
Speaker 1: and ten years. That's too long, Lord, I don't want
Speaker 1: all that. How many agree that's too long, Lord, put
Speaker 1: it in the chat. That's too long, Lord, But look
Speaker 1: at this, and Joseph saw evil from children of the
Speaker 1: third Generation. As for you, you meant it for evil,
Speaker 1: but Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. I
Speaker 1: don't know if this is a title, but this is
Speaker 1: what I want you to get today, and I want
Speaker 1: you to say it out loud one more time. I'll
Speaker 1: stop making you repeat stuff, I promise, But look at
Speaker 1: somebody next to you, or just type it to nobody
Speaker 1: in particular and say, what you do is up to you.
Speaker 1: But what it means. You thought I was done. I
Speaker 1: got you good start over. What you do is up
Speaker 1: to you. Joseph looked at his brother and said, you
Speaker 1: meant it for evil. What you do is up to you,
Speaker 1: but what it means is up to me. What it
Speaker 1: means is up to me. What does it mean? It's
Speaker 1: up to me. So, like, one of the hardest things
Speaker 1: about being a parent is teaching your kids what words mean,
Speaker 1: because they honestly think you're Google when they're little, and
Speaker 1: then they think you're an idiot when they get bigger.
Speaker 1: But I write these things down because Levi Lusco taught
Speaker 1: me something cool. He said, put everything that your kids
Speaker 1: say that's kind of cute down in your phone and
Speaker 1: then you can read it to them later and they'll
Speaker 1: like it. And so I've been doing that for a
Speaker 1: few years because Levi. Levi told me to. He also
Speaker 1: told me to try sarracha and wear common projects. He's
Speaker 1: just the ultimate salesman. But I was like, okay, Levi,
Speaker 1: I'll do it. It's really cool. I'm glad I did it.
Speaker 1: And I found this note because I was thinking about
Speaker 1: how kids asked the best questions, which I think is
Speaker 1: one of the reasons that God wants us to have
Speaker 1: faith like a child, not to beldildish and immature, but
Speaker 1: to be childlike and to be curious about God, to
Speaker 1: be curious about what He can do in the world.
Speaker 1: And so kids have no problem with that. So we
Speaker 1: were watching this show and one of the characters said,
Speaker 1: the only reason I remember this Abby was poored. She's
Speaker 1: almost ten now. The only reason I remember it is
Speaker 1: because Levi Lusco and she said. One of the characters said,
Speaker 1: with this plan, we can't fail, and Abby goes, what
Speaker 1: does fail mean? So then I answered her it means
Speaker 1: that you don't succeed. Well, then you know what she
Speaker 1: asked next, right, what does succeed mean? And answering that
Speaker 1: was really tough because I was like, well, it means
Speaker 1: that you do what you set out to do. But
Speaker 1: then I was like, well, not really. In God's kingdom,
Speaker 1: sometimes what you set out to do was the wrong thing,
Speaker 1: and then you end up realizing that what you set
Speaker 1: out to do wasn't the right thing. And God was
Speaker 1: trying to, you know, kind of lead you in Toto
Speaker 1: one pl but you thought you were supposed to do this,
Speaker 1: and then it turned out you're supposed to do that.
Speaker 1: You know, I I start having an existential crisis watching
Speaker 1: The Simpsons with my family. I'm like, I shouldn't have
Speaker 1: told you it was the Simpsons and she was four,
Speaker 1: But y'all pray for me. Hello, I'm sitting there going,
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm not saying this out loud, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's so deep. Well, to succeed? Mean, what
Speaker 1: is it profit a man to gain the whole world
Speaker 1: and lose his soul? She's asking for a little definition.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm having this midlife crisis, but it did
Speaker 1: hit me that you know, you really can't answer the
Speaker 1: first question what is failure? If you don't answer the
Speaker 1: second definition? What is success? And really can make a
Speaker 1: word mean anything you wanted to mean? Yes, you know,
Speaker 1: short term success times is the ultimate failure. Have you
Speaker 1: ever seen somebody that got in really good physical shape
Speaker 1: but they did it the wrong way and then it
Speaker 1: ended up just creating the cycle to where they just
Speaker 1: keep losing weight and taking weight off, And it's like, well, man,
Speaker 1: if you do if you do a good thing the
Speaker 1: wrong way, that becomes its own problem. So you can
Speaker 1: have a short term success in a long term failure.
Speaker 1: You have a short term failure in long term success, right,
Speaker 1: and many of you have experienced that in your life.
Speaker 1: How many y'all had to break up that was a blessing?
Speaker 1: Let me ask it like this, how many of y'all
Speaker 1: would be living with somebody who would make you want
Speaker 1: to move out if God would have answered your prayers
Speaker 1: like Garth Brooks said, some of God's greatest gifts. I
Speaker 1: saw Garth on the Billboard Awards last night. Did you
Speaker 1: see him? And start making me feel like a failure?
Speaker 1: Because sometimes I feel successful when I'm like comparing myself
Speaker 1: because this is all relevan, you know, I'm comparing myself.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, we wrote these songs that are
Speaker 1: big songs. And then Garth Brooks is Chason Whiskey and
Speaker 1: you know drowned diamond albums. I got a platinum album
Speaker 1: last year. I gave it to my mom, put it
Speaker 1: up on her wall. Platinum album Garth has they said
Speaker 1: on the thing, I think he had ten diamond albums.
Speaker 1: Now I got my little pitiful platinum album. Let me
Speaker 1: take this down. Garth's got a diamond album, Unanswered Prayers, Lord,
Speaker 1: what's my life even worth? You know? And all of that.
Speaker 1: I was listening to one thing the other day where
Speaker 1: the guy was talking about he won a Grammy, and
Speaker 1: then he wanted to win a Oscar, so he start
Speaker 1: putting being in movies. Then he started wanting to win
Speaker 1: on an Emmy, so he did a TV show and
Speaker 1: he said the only thing left for him to achieve
Speaker 1: that was driving him crazy was to win a Tony
Speaker 1: for a Broadway play. So he said, that's called an egot.
Speaker 1: When you get an Emmy. Not many people do it.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many, because I'm not in it
Speaker 1: for these worldly pleasures. But he said, Emmy, a Grammy,
Speaker 1: and an Oscar. But then he said, but I don't
Speaker 1: have a Tony. He said, right now, it's just ego. Now,
Speaker 1: how many things that the world calls success, how many
Speaker 1: things that the devil uses to get you to think,
Speaker 1: remember last week that my life doesn't matter. It's just ego.
Speaker 1: He said, I gotta get an egot, and then I'll
Speaker 1: start thinking about what I got. Somebody say I got
Speaker 1: oh put it in all caps in the worldwide e
Speaker 1: fam said. Somebody say I got mercy. I got grace,
Speaker 1: I God, love, joy, peace, thanxious, kindness, goodness, thankfuless, gentleness,
Speaker 1: and self control. I got the fruit of us fear.
Speaker 1: I got it. I got it. I didn't learn it,
Speaker 1: but I got it, Okay. So Paul is like, I
Speaker 1: don't yet. I got loyalty and royalty and all of that.
Speaker 1: Paul said, I got it in sight of me. I
Speaker 1: got courage to make it no matter the outcome. I
Speaker 1: got it. I got it pressing towards the mark to
Speaker 1: take hold of the price for which Christ Jesus has
Speaker 1: already taken hold of me. I already got it. And
Speaker 1: the guy was talking about all those Grammys and Tony's
Speaker 1: and he said, I don't know why I think the
Speaker 1: next one is going to make me feel any better.
Speaker 1: It didn't do what I thought it was gonna do.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had that before? I know, I mean
Speaker 1: I don't want a Grammy or anything like that either,
Speaker 1: But have you ever got it? Have you ever got it?
Speaker 1: And when you get it and it's empty, it's a
Speaker 1: really weird feeling. It's almost worse than never getting it.
Speaker 1: But Paul is showing us something here. And remember, coming
Speaker 1: back to this theme, are you in control. You are control,
Speaker 1: in control of what success means to you, and if
Speaker 1: you align that with the worldly definition of success, you
Speaker 1: can expect at some point an emptiness that comes when
Speaker 1: we try to give our own definitions to God's concepts.
Speaker 1: I found out you can really make anything mean anything
Speaker 1: you want it to me. Even in the Bible. It's like,
Speaker 1: if we're talking to Paul and we were talking about
Speaker 1: what is failure and what a success, it would be
Speaker 1: a very confusing class because right here he's saying in
Speaker 1: Philippians one, what's happening right now, the Gospel is succeeding
Speaker 1: even though I'm in prison, and he uses the word
Speaker 1: I don't know if you noticed it. He said fruitful.
Speaker 1: This means more fruitful labor. So he says it's working
Speaker 1: in me. It's working in me, even though the work
Speaker 1: that he could do was limited. And sometimes I say
Speaker 1: things like this and I don't break it down because
Speaker 1: I know you're not in prison physically, you're watching this.
Speaker 1: I know that you're not necessarily a preacher apostle of
Speaker 1: the gospel like Paul would. I understand that. I know
Speaker 1: you're not sitting there thinking maybe about oscars or Tony's
Speaker 1: or anything like this. But I think the dynamic applies
Speaker 1: to everybody listening to me, and I want to know, well,
Speaker 1: if I'm right, is that like how Solomon said meaningless meaningless?
Speaker 1: Everything is meaningless. Everything is meaningless until you give it
Speaker 1: a meaning. And so where we get it backwards is
Speaker 1: we're searching for meaning and stuff, but everything is meaningless
Speaker 1: until you give it meaning. And I want to talk
Speaker 1: about that a little bit. She said, what's failure? And
Speaker 1: then I had to think about, well, what's success? And
Speaker 1: then I didn't really know how to answer her. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, certain things change meaning over time, and since
Speaker 1: we're talking about what does it mean today, you know,
Speaker 1: we can all agree that from generation to generation. It's
Speaker 1: funny because when you're first raising your kids, you have
Speaker 1: to tell them what words mean, and then when they
Speaker 1: turn to teenagers, they have to tell you what words mean. Right,
Speaker 1: how many got teenagers? Are you used to have them?
Speaker 1: Or something like that. Well, they sometimes save you a
Speaker 1: lot of trouble. Elijah is my sermon, really my sermon collaborator.
Speaker 1: I don't want him to, you know, really hear this,
Speaker 1: because he'll start wanting a royalty or something like that.
Speaker 1: But he helps me on multiple levels. And one thing
Speaker 1: that he'll do sometimes is he'll say, Dad, don't say that.
Speaker 1: One time I was telling him all I was going
Speaker 1: to preach, and I just was going on and on
Speaker 1: about how we don't need to waste our life and
Speaker 1: we need to make the most of our time. And
Speaker 1: I said, some of y'all just want to Netflix and chill.
Speaker 1: And he said, oh, whoa, whoa, Dad, this a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. I just heard somebody say it Netflix
Speaker 1: and chill. I thought it meant be lazy sit around.
Speaker 1: He said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. That that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean what you're thinking means. And I was thankful. And
Speaker 1: I wonder how many times God Wow sits up there
Speaker 1: looking at our lives, who wishing we could hear him
Speaker 1: say that doesn't mean what you think it means. Even
Speaker 1: if you just go through this one letter that Paul
Speaker 1: wrote to the Philippian Church, which highly organized beautiful Bible study.
Speaker 1: And I hope many of our e groups I heard
Speaker 1: there's tens of thousands of people enjoyed it. But if
Speaker 1: you'll just notice some of the things he says to
Speaker 1: the Philippian Church, see this church meant a lot to
Speaker 1: him because he found it in the midst of persecution.
Speaker 1: And anything that you birth in the midst of great
Speaker 1: pain means more to you. He called them partners in
Speaker 1: the Gospel, and he loved them like that. He loved
Speaker 1: them like that. So when he told them that every
Speaker 1: need will bow and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: is Lord. I just wonder when we say Jesus's Lord,
Speaker 1: if Paul hears us kind of quoting that in a
Speaker 1: cultural way eight pounds six ounce Jesus, what was he
Speaker 1: eight pounds and six ounces, and he's like, when I
Speaker 1: say Jesus Christ is Lord. See, that was a costly
Speaker 1: confession when Paul wrote it, because it was it was saying,
Speaker 1: Caesar isn't Lord. So he was rejecting the empire to
Speaker 1: embrace the kingdom. When we say Jesus is Lord, for
Speaker 1: a lot of us, that means I grew up Baptist,
Speaker 1: but for Lord was his favorite thing to call Jesus curios.
Speaker 1: He loved that title lord. It meant to him I
Speaker 1: do what he says. And for a lot of us,
Speaker 1: when we call on the Lord is to get him
Speaker 1: to do what we say. And That's why when Paul says,
Speaker 1: whether I live or die, that's up to God. He's Lord.
Speaker 1: That's not that's not what means. It doesn't mean what
Speaker 1: you think think. It means Jesus is Lord. That means
Speaker 1: that that I trust him with what I can't control.
Speaker 1: Or here's another one. I know you know this one
Speaker 1: because I mentioned it earlier. Rejoice in the Lord. We
Speaker 1: think that means seeing I asked five people to get
Speaker 1: ready for this sermon. I said, what comes to your
Speaker 1: mind when you hear rejoice? They said, clap, singing, shall well,
Speaker 1: Paul's not shaking the tambourine in his imprisonment. When Paul's
Speaker 1: talking about rejoice, he's talking about the remembrance of the
Speaker 1: reason that he was called for. Paul, rejoicing is far
Speaker 1: more than just an external expression. It's an internal decision, y'all.
Speaker 1: Hear me, It's a decision. Rejoice and again I say rejoice,
Speaker 1: he says in Philippians four. But here's the best one
Speaker 1: where I bet Paul. I bet when he hears US
Speaker 1: quote this one, he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean what you think. It means. I can
Speaker 1: do This is Philippians four thirteen, All things through Christ,
Speaker 1: who strengthens me. Paul's like, that does not mean that
Speaker 1: you can play in the NBA. You are five to
Speaker 1: six and uncoordinated. That doesn't you know how many people
Speaker 1: tried out for American Idol because they thought Philippians four
Speaker 1: thirteen meant something that didn't mean. You see them on
Speaker 1: the audition. Daves is terrible. Paul's not talking about doing
Speaker 1: something beyond your God given capacity. He's talking about living
Speaker 1: with contentment. So that's context. I want to talk about context.
Speaker 1: Success requires context, so does failure. And sometimes if you
Speaker 1: can see it in the right context, you can see
Speaker 1: that what you call a failure, what you call the waste,
Speaker 1: what you call a set back, was really the grace
Speaker 1: of God. I got it. Yeah, so so, So it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean what you think it means. What does it mean?
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean what you think it means. Church doesn't
Speaker 1: mean building worship doesn't mean the slow songs, and success
Speaker 1: doesn't mean Egot false said I got a reason to rejoice.
Speaker 1: This dude was used to accomplishing so much. This dude
Speaker 1: was used to being on top, and he's still saying
Speaker 1: I will choose. What shall I choose? Now? I thought
Speaker 1: that I was going to do three weeks on this
Speaker 1: because I thought there's three questions. What does it matter priorities,
Speaker 1: what does it mean? Interpretation? And what shall I choose? Decision?
Speaker 1: But then the Lord showed me dummy. He didn't call
Speaker 1: me that. I just talked to myself. Means sometimes, the
Speaker 1: Lord said, my son, my beloved, He said, those two
Speaker 1: go together. What does it mean? Depends on what you choose? Okay, yes, Lord,
Speaker 1: put it back up one two Philippians one twenty two,
Speaker 1: just so you can see it. If I am to
Speaker 1: go on living in the body, that's up to you. Lord,
Speaker 1: this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet, what shall
Speaker 1: I choose that all goes together? It's really one question.
Speaker 1: He's praying, all right, Lord, what you do is up
Speaker 1: to you. And I feel like he probably even say
Speaker 1: that to his jailer. What you do is up to you,
Speaker 1: But what it means is up to me. See, they
Speaker 1: would chain a prisoner to a guard. Paul said, you
Speaker 1: can shame me to you if you want to. But
Speaker 1: all that means to me is I've got a captive
Speaker 1: audience to preach to. Let me button up this flannel
Speaker 1: and wait for y'all to get it. Because I hear
Speaker 1: God saying, I'm not shame to it. It's same to me.
Speaker 1: So what you do, it's up to you. But what
Speaker 1: it means, somebody shouts up to me, it's up to
Speaker 1: me what it means. It's up to me what it means.
Speaker 1: It means, Paul said, fruitful labor. I am choosing to
Speaker 1: work with God, labor work. I am going to work
Speaker 1: with God, not against God. So I hear the Lord saying,
Speaker 1: work with me, work with me. Do not fight against
Speaker 1: what I am bringing into your life. Work with me.
Speaker 1: Cooperate with the grace that I have given you in
Speaker 1: this season of your life. And you've been confused about
Speaker 1: what this season means, haven't you. Some of you have
Speaker 1: felt like you were in a losing season. A losing season.
Speaker 1: You've lost a lot, you really have. This is not
Speaker 1: some moment for a doctor SEUs. What he means is
Speaker 1: up to me. What you do is up to you.
Speaker 1: This is a theological thing that is from the beginning
Speaker 1: of Scripture to the end to show you what to
Speaker 1: do in a losing season. Back to Genesis fifty after
Speaker 1: Joseph has lost a lot. First, he had to lose
Speaker 1: his coat and it was Gucci. That coat was so colorful.
Speaker 1: Listen to me when I say the coat was the
Speaker 1: least thing that he lost. He lost his sense of
Speaker 1: connection because we've talked about context, but now let's talk
Speaker 1: about connection. What it means is up to me. And
Speaker 1: now Joseph is going through this series and this series
Speaker 1: of I won't even call it unfortunate events like the
Speaker 1: book called it. I'm going to say this series of
Speaker 1: events from Joseph's standpoint, were disconnected. How could the Bible
Speaker 1: say in Genesis thirty seven through fifty that God was
Speaker 1: with Joseph when he went through so much because most
Speaker 1: of us to say that we have God's presence means
Speaker 1: that we are in situations that confirm his favor. And
Speaker 1: usually what we mean when we say God is blessing
Speaker 1: me is things are going like I wanted them to
Speaker 1: or better. Right, So for the Bible to say, and
Speaker 1: this is what I was thinking about, for the Bible
Speaker 1: to say that the Lord was with Joseph doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: mean that that's how he felt while he was walking
Speaker 1: through his life. That was written after the fact, and
Speaker 1: it is always a mistake to try to figure out
Speaker 1: what this season means while I'm still in it. Paul says,
Speaker 1: this will mean fruitful labor to me. So I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to the future with expectation, but while I'm in it,
Speaker 1: I'm having to choose to see it that way. How
Speaker 1: do you interpret the losing season of your life? So
Speaker 1: we assume, well, this went wrong, So God must be
Speaker 1: punishing me, because the thing is, you know some secrets
Speaker 1: about yourself, some things that you're not doing exactly right,
Speaker 1: some things that would make you not a candidate for
Speaker 1: God's mercy and Grayson, because we kind of live on
Speaker 1: an egosystem of achievement, to earn it, to get it
Speaker 1: in our own strength, we kind of go, well, God
Speaker 1: must be punishing me. But I saw something. I saw something.
Speaker 1: I saw two things. One was in John and one
Speaker 1: was in Genesis. And then I'll bring it back to
Speaker 1: Philippians where Jesus said something, I'm gonna do this backwards.
Speaker 1: Go to the second verse of John fifteen first, where
Speaker 1: Jesus says, I don't know if you've heard this before,
Speaker 1: but he says he cuts off every branch in me
Speaker 1: that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit,
Speaker 1: he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to ask you something. Who is he?
Speaker 1: Put it back up? Who is he? If you don't
Speaker 1: know the answer to that, you will misinterpret the pain
Speaker 1: in your life. Every time look at it again, he prunes?
Speaker 1: Who is he? We love to give credit to the devil.
Speaker 1: So I'm really glad for the context of verse one
Speaker 1: because the context of verse one lets me know the
Speaker 1: motive of the one who is performing the task in
Speaker 1: verse two. If you always think it's the devil attacking you,
Speaker 1: everything that is the devil attacking me, you will miss
Speaker 1: the opportunity to bear fruit. But I love verse one.
Speaker 1: Put it on the screen. I Jesus said, I I
Speaker 1: am the true vine. I'm the one you gotta stay
Speaker 1: connected to. I'm the one who's in control. I'm the
Speaker 1: one who gives you sap. I'm the one who gives
Speaker 1: you life. I'm the one who gives you strength. I'm
Speaker 1: the one who gives you the ability to grow. And
Speaker 1: my watch this, my father, my father, Abby said, what
Speaker 1: does sale mean? She figured she needed to get that
Speaker 1: definition from her father. I hear God saying, ask me
Speaker 1: about your life. Ask me what this sea, Ask me
Speaker 1: what it means. See, here's what I know. Here's what
Speaker 1: I know. Even if life is cutting on me, God
Speaker 1: is holding the scissors. Even if a virus wrecked my plans.
Speaker 1: God is in charge of my life. He is curios,
Speaker 1: Lord in control, in charge, on the throne, my father.
Speaker 1: So you know what. I don't have a lot of answers.
Speaker 1: I don't have a lot of wisdom. I don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of knowledge. But I got a father. Somebody say,
Speaker 1: I got a father, You're ready for this? And if
Speaker 1: I got a father, that means fruit. This means fruit.
Speaker 1: This means he is bringing something out of this situation
Speaker 1: that is beyond my ability to predict or perform. Come
Speaker 1: get me off the stage, Holly, I feel too annoying.
Speaker 1: I don't even know who God loves so much that
Speaker 1: he wanted me to say this whole message to you.
Speaker 1: The proof is in the pruning. Oh I'm hurting right now.
Speaker 1: That that must mean that God is not with me.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, my kids are acting up. That must mean
Speaker 1: I'm a bad parent. You see how we do? That
Speaker 1: must mean Oh, that must mean they didn't call me.
Speaker 1: They must they must not love me. No, maybe they
Speaker 1: have a headache. We interpret these things all the time.
Speaker 1: We interpret our seasons, we interpret silence. I know I've
Speaker 1: told you all the story before about our honeymoon, not
Speaker 1: the whole story, this one part. When I took Holli
Speaker 1: on a cruise and it was a princess cruise, which
Speaker 1: to me is a pretty I'm not doing an endorsement here,
Speaker 1: but to me, it was about the best I could do, right.
Speaker 1: And when we were on the second day of the
Speaker 1: cruise and she was so quiet, I got angry. I
Speaker 1: was like, this cruise isn't good enough for you. She's like, no,
Speaker 1: When I get happy and relaxed, I get quiet. I'm
Speaker 1: the exact opposite, right, So when I get relaxed and happy,
Speaker 1: I'm jumping on the bed. I'm right. I mean, when
Speaker 1: I get happy, I'm annoying. I'm obnoxious, I'm ridiculous. I
Speaker 1: drive everybody in the family to want to go camping
Speaker 1: without me in the backyard. And when I get relaxed.
Speaker 1: But see, how I interpret silas comes from how I
Speaker 1: understand myself when the kids were real little, when they
Speaker 1: were quiet, let me tell you what that did not mean.
Speaker 1: That did not mean they were praying. That did not
Speaker 1: mean that they were napping. I learned with little kids,
Speaker 1: with little kids that quiet means chaos, y'all hear me,
Speaker 1: Quiet means chaos with little kids. And I had to
Speaker 1: learn about God that just because I don't hear him
Speaker 1: saying much doesn't mean he isn't doing much. So how
Speaker 1: do you you interpret silence? I told Holly, you two
Speaker 1: stuck up for this. This a cruise isn't good. I
Speaker 1: wasn't mean like that, but that's what I'm thinking. First
Speaker 1: time I've ever told her that. I was thinking all
Speaker 1: that right here in this holy moment with you. But
Speaker 1: you see this question, what does it matter? That's a
Speaker 1: big one, But what does it mean? You're always putting
Speaker 1: meaning on things and you don't even know you're doing it.
Speaker 1: So if you're in a good state of mind, you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: birds showed up on my door, and that made me
Speaker 1: think of Matthew six, consider the sparrows. If you're in
Speaker 1: a bad state of mind, saying bird can show up?
Speaker 1: You know, I heard birds mean death in some cultures.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just you're putting meaning on things, and
Speaker 1: I know that's kind of an extreme one or as
Speaker 1: dumb or whatever. But the other day I think that
Speaker 1: I don't know, I didn't tell you this. I didn't
Speaker 1: tell you this son when I took when me and
Speaker 1: Jet went to eat barbecue, and Jet's father, Lashawn, was
Speaker 1: a part of our church April, Jet and Lashawn moved
Speaker 1: to be a part of the church, and we lost
Speaker 1: him last year. And it's been just over a year.
Speaker 1: And we were talking about some of these things, and
Speaker 1: Jets a musician, and his dad was a great songwriter
Speaker 1: and a great producer. He wrote for Brandy when I
Speaker 1: heard them talking about the Boy is Mine. That was
Speaker 1: Lashan's song on the billboards last night. And he did
Speaker 1: get a Grammy. And but we lost him so suddenly,
Speaker 1: and it was horrible. But Jet would show me how
Speaker 1: he's still writing songs. And I was sitting there thinking, oh, man,
Speaker 1: that's Lashawn, that's Lashan, you know, that's still living in
Speaker 1: Jet and and and he's gonna be even better than
Speaker 1: she has ever was. And I'm thinking all this, you know,
Speaker 1: in between eating my barbecue, and and I'm telling Jet,
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, you know, God's hand is on you
Speaker 1: this and that and the other. And he goes pastor, pastor,
Speaker 1: and he's very respectful. So he's interrupted me. I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is weird. He never would do that. He goes,
Speaker 1: do you hear that? And it was the song on
Speaker 1: the TV and the barbecue joint that his dad had
Speaker 1: put on his album. I can't wait that He's simple.
Speaker 1: And we didn't even have to say anything. We knew
Speaker 1: that she just wanted to eat barbecue with us. I said, Jed,
Speaker 1: do you think he goes Yeah, That's all we had
Speaker 1: to say. So when you're looking for loss, you'll you'll
Speaker 1: find him. When you're looking for the love of God,
Speaker 1: even in the worst loss of your life. Every branch
Speaker 1: in me I have a father who prunes. What you do,
Speaker 1: Lord is up to you. I can't control. That's that's
Speaker 1: where I do believe in the sovereignty of God. And
Speaker 1: Paul did too right Philippians three twenty one. Looking up
Speaker 1: it said He's able to bring everything under his control
Speaker 1: the phrases in the book. But I don't think that
Speaker 1: means what we think it means. I think we think
Speaker 1: that means that things in our life come with meaning. No,
Speaker 1: they don't. One time I taught a session to the
Speaker 1: campus fastor is called BYO and bring your own meaning.
Speaker 1: And the thing I just keep confessing over my life
Speaker 1: because you can really misunderstand things. I keep saying, this
Speaker 1: means more, This means more, even when something is going away.
Speaker 1: The proof of his love is in the pruning, every
Speaker 1: branch that bears fruit. Paul said, if I go on living,
Speaker 1: this means more fruitful labor. You're looking for his love
Speaker 1: or you're looking for the losses. Now, whichever one you
Speaker 1: look for, you'll find a meaning to back it up.
Speaker 1: And a lot of pictures. I like to do the
Speaker 1: I love you sign when I take the picture. Y'all
Speaker 1: should see my Instagram account. The trolls that come on there.
Speaker 1: Why are you making Illuminati signals or devil signals or
Speaker 1: something like that. It's the esl or I love you,
Speaker 1: that's what it means. Somebody said that's what it means.
Speaker 1: But they said I was making devil rock concert hands,
Speaker 1: and I guess when you don't use the thumb or something,
Speaker 1: that's the devil or something. I didn't know. I thought
Speaker 1: it meant rock on. I thought it meant Motley Crue,
Speaker 1: bon Jovi, Mega Death. I didn't know that's what it meant,
Speaker 1: isn't it crazy? How I mean love? And they're on
Speaker 1: there saying, why are you putting the devil on your picture?
Speaker 1: What does it mean? Has God been trying to show
Speaker 1: you his love even in the things like, oh well, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not that great at this, So I guess got
Speaker 1: to know. Maybe that means God wants to use you
Speaker 1: a different way. I told somebody when when Elijah turned thirteen,
Speaker 1: I said, he's having some trouble in this and that,
Speaker 1: and it was a bumpy spot and I said, I
Speaker 1: must That must mean I'm a bad dad. That must
Speaker 1: mean I'm doing it wrong, he said. And the person
Speaker 1: saying back to me was older. They said, it means
Speaker 1: he's thirteen. You see what I'm saying. You're misinterpreting the season.
Speaker 1: He's supposed to differ, they said. They said, listen, they said.
Speaker 1: They said, if he didn't start making you mad, you
Speaker 1: would never let him leave the house. You gotta make
Speaker 1: you mad a little well, and then you love him
Speaker 1: again and you make you mad again. That's what it means.
Speaker 1: He's thirteen. It means you're growing. Paul said, it means
Speaker 1: God wanted to do something in this prison. See how
Speaker 1: we bring meaning, we bring the meaning we make it
Speaker 1: mean what we want to make it mean. You minted
Speaker 1: for evil, but God? How many believe we could spend
Speaker 1: an hour talking about but God? But God? And your
Speaker 1: life is not controlled by the intention of your enemy,
Speaker 1: and your life is not limited to the scope of
Speaker 1: your circumstances. Somebody say, I got a father, I got
Speaker 1: faith afacaradopia, and I eagerly expect. Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: Paul had such a great faith that he had to
Speaker 1: make up a word out of other Greek words to
Speaker 1: explain his expectation. Somebody say, I can't explain it, but
Speaker 1: I got it. Say it again. I can't explain it,
Speaker 1: but I got it. Paulson, I got peace in this person.
Speaker 1: I know I shouldn't. I can't explain it, but I
Speaker 1: got it. You can't make me panic, you can't make
Speaker 1: me hate, you can't make me bitter. What you do
Speaker 1: is up to you. What it means, it's up to me.
Speaker 1: It's not even up to God what it means. He
Speaker 1: has left that responsibility to you. And that's why Joseph
Speaker 1: was able to see rejection as direction. I hope you
Speaker 1: caught that. I hope that soft piano didn't make you
Speaker 1: think he's closing. Let me pack up my stuff and
Speaker 1: get ready to watch another church service. Skip over. You
Speaker 1: listen to me. Joseph said, you meant, but God meant
Speaker 1: so what the enemy meant for evil? Now I hear
Speaker 1: him saying that all things work together for the good
Speaker 1: of those who. When love is your lens, you see
Speaker 1: God in everything. He must love me so much. When
Speaker 1: Lady was special needs child, said, I figure God loved
Speaker 1: that child so much that he gave me the compliment
Speaker 1: of having the opportunity to raise that child. I thought
Speaker 1: she made it mean that. She could have said, well,
Speaker 1: God is punishing me. She could have said, well, why me.
Speaker 1: I thought that was beautiful. I really did what it
Speaker 1: means he said, if I get to keep if I die,
Speaker 1: I'll go be with Christ. So for Paul, death didn't
Speaker 1: mean the end. What it means is up to me.
Speaker 1: That's why I told y'all from John twelve that before
Speaker 1: the seed multiplies, remember verse twenty four on the Remember
Speaker 1: it was just yesterday. I'm super vocal that before the
Speaker 1: seed multiplies, it dies. So from the perspective of Jesus,
Speaker 1: remember when he's dying on the cross. He says it
Speaker 1: is finished. His enemies thought that meant it had failed.
Speaker 1: But I hear the spirit of God saying, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean what you think it means. I know
Speaker 1: what's been pruning. I know they meant it for evil,
Speaker 1: but what the enemy means for evil? This can't just
Speaker 1: be a cliche people. We can't just make it something
Speaker 1: that we say just to feel better and to escape
Speaker 1: our agony for a few minutes. When a preacher is preaching,
Speaker 1: you gotta walk around your life. This we looking for food,
Speaker 1: looking for fruit. God, show me what you're doing, Show
Speaker 1: me what it means. God. And I almost stopped at twenty.
Speaker 1: I almost stopped at twenty. I almost stopped at twenty.
Speaker 1: But something told me to keep reading. Something told me
Speaker 1: to keep reading. And after Joseph said, you meant it
Speaker 1: for evil, but God meant it for good. In verse
Speaker 1: twenty one, it says something that would be insignificant, but
Speaker 1: it has great significance in this context. Do not fear.
Speaker 1: I will provide you for you and your little ones.
Speaker 1: And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them verse
Speaker 1: verse fifty two. So Joseph remained in Egypt lived one
Speaker 1: hundred and ten years, and here's twenty three. And if
Speaker 1: this is your word, I want you to grab it
Speaker 1: and squeeze it and live on it all this week,
Speaker 1: every single time you're walking around looking at circumstances in
Speaker 1: your life wondering, well, why did they leave me? And
Speaker 1: why is this happening? And why is that happening? And
Speaker 1: why is it raining? And why is it Sonny? Watch
Speaker 1: what it said. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children and their children.
Speaker 1: And I know that doesn't mean much to you, but
Speaker 1: it means a lot to Joseph because he was in
Speaker 1: Egypt suffering as a prisoner. But he says something in
Speaker 1: Genesis forty one, before his brothers ever came and showed up,
Speaker 1: and before he forgave them, and before he provided for them,
Speaker 1: and before he saw the purpose that God was accomplishing
Speaker 1: in Genesis fifty twenty. And a lot of you are
Speaker 1: there right now with the ability to see what God
Speaker 1: is doing and to realize that all things work together.
Speaker 1: Is to do what Joseph did. Look at Genesis forty one,
Speaker 1: verse fifty. Before the year of famine came to sons
Speaker 1: were born to Joseph as an Ath, daughter of Potipharah,
Speaker 1: priest of an bore them to him. And now look
Speaker 1: at this verse. Joseph called the name of his firstborn Nassa,
Speaker 1: for he said, God has made me forget all my
Speaker 1: hardship in my father's house. You know what Manasa means forget.
Speaker 1: And yet he didn't forget. When his brothers came to
Speaker 1: him a few chapters later, he was weeping, he was hurting.
Speaker 1: He didn't forget that. They put him in a pity.
Speaker 1: He didn't forget. It wasn't gone from his memory. So
Speaker 1: I thought, well, how can he name his son forget?
Speaker 1: Even the fact that he mentions it means he hadn't
Speaker 1: really forgotten it. God didn't called me to forget what
Speaker 1: I've been through. Some things you never forget. But here
Speaker 1: was the thing in verse fifty two, the name of
Speaker 1: the second he called Ephraim. That's the one we just
Speaker 1: read about that he saw Ephraim, for God has made
Speaker 1: me fruitful. Manassa means forgetphram means fruitful. For God has
Speaker 1: made me fruitful in the land of my affliction, fruitful
Speaker 1: in my failure. What does failure mean? It's only over
Speaker 1: if you quit In fact, Ephraim doesn't just mean fruitful,
Speaker 1: it means twice fruitful. So then I realized that it
Speaker 1: wasn't Joseph forgetting what he had been through. It was
Speaker 1: that God gave him so much fruit that what he
Speaker 1: went through what's worth it. Now I considered, thank you, lady,
Speaker 1: because I know it's been a pruning season. But those
Speaker 1: he loves he prunes. God must really love me. Look
Speaker 1: at all that he helped me to overcome. God must
Speaker 1: really have a great plan for me. You say that
Speaker 1: the enemy's attack is the proof that God has left me.
Speaker 1: I say, the enemies attack, it's the proof of how
Speaker 1: much God has put it inside me. What is it matter?
Speaker 1: What does it mean? What shall I choose? You know, Lord,
Speaker 1: come on, lift your hands with your palm's face, and
Speaker 1: like you received from your father, not only are you
Speaker 1: my father, you're my Lord. Now. I believe that sometimes
Speaker 1: I rebel, and sometimes I like to be my own God.
Speaker 1: But like Joseph said, am I in the place of God.
Speaker 1: I thank you that any tree that stays planted by
Speaker 1: living water will yield fruit in season. And I declare
Speaker 1: that over the lives of those that you've called me
Speaker 1: to lead. You've given me and Holly the wonderful privilege
Speaker 1: to be the pastors of Elevation Church. When we started,
Speaker 1: that was just a group of one group of people meeting,
Speaker 1: and now it's a ministry that spans the globe and
Speaker 1: there's so much fruit in it. We never imagined that
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands, whatever it is, numbers of people that
Speaker 1: would be so impacted. Never imagine that people wake up
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night to watch and to
Speaker 1: stream just to get the word. We just never imagine.
Speaker 1: We never imagined that we'd have to close our buildings
Speaker 1: for a little while. But all through this season, Lord,
Speaker 1: I've seen you bringing forth fruit. Lord. When I heard
Speaker 1: that we would have to not meet for a little while,
Speaker 1: I thought that we couldn't minister, And now I realized
Speaker 1: that it really meant you wanted to do more ministry.
Speaker 1: That there were people who never would have heard the gospel,
Speaker 1: never would have heard this word if you hadn't shut
Speaker 1: it down. And what has been true of this ministry
Speaker 1: over these last few months. I just want to speak
Speaker 1: it over the lives of each teenager, everybody who's walking
Speaker 1: through a pruning, losing season in their marriage or their business,
Speaker 1: or or it's been emotionally weird, whatever, whatever, whatever, to
Speaker 1: know that I got a father, to know that what
Speaker 1: you choose to allow in our lives, that's what makes
Speaker 1: you Lord. But how we choose to use it as
Speaker 1: your children is what moves us forward. And now, God,
Speaker 1: I declare more fruit, more fruit, more fruit over their lives.
Speaker 1: If it's a season of cutting back, if it's a
Speaker 1: season that seems like a setback, if it's a season
Speaker 1: that seems silent, I thank you that you're up to
Speaker 1: something right now upstairs. I thank you that just because
Speaker 1: you're quiet doesn't mean you're not close. And so, Lord,
Speaker 1: would you do it? Would you make them fruitful in
Speaker 1: that frustrating place? Bring forth fruit? Only you can do that.
Speaker 1: We plan our lives and the soul of your purpose.
Speaker 1: What you do is up to you. You You are in control.
Speaker 1: But what it means, it's up to me. The Lord says,
Speaker 1: I set before you life and death. This day, choose
Speaker 1: life in Jesus' name. All of you who received this
Speaker 1: word with a glad heart, put your hands together and
Speaker 1: give God the praise. Come on, if he's still God
Speaker 1: in the brunic, give him the phrase. Paul said, He's
Speaker 1: still God in this prison. He's still God in this thing.
Speaker 1: Give it the prise. Come on, omit no now, omitten
Speaker 1: on now, prid the wont open your now, Valentine, abt
Speaker 1: no now and give in the prise, the prise. You're
Speaker 1: proud of that. I come, not decide that they on Jesus,
Speaker 1: everreaday dobou and everreath not come ess, Come on getting
Speaker 1: Christ that Jesus chris es glory, get glory to the Father.
Speaker 1: You've got a father. You've gotta You've got a father.
Speaker 1: More fruit, more fruit, more fruit. That's what God is
Speaker 1: doing in your life, bringing forth the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
Speaker 1: faithfulness is genderness. Self control isn't that crazy? Self control?
Speaker 1: God is in control, but he's given us self control.
Speaker 1: Are you in control? You're in control of your focus.
Speaker 1: So I want you to focus on the goodness of God,
Speaker 1: all the ways he's blessed you, all the things he's
Speaker 1: given you. I want you to really put this to
Speaker 1: work in your life, Paul said, fruitful labor. That means
Speaker 1: you've got to put it to work. All things work
Speaker 1: together for good. You don't need to hear me repreach
Speaker 1: the sermon. You heard it, but I just can't stop
Speaker 1: by it. I feel like God gave me that message
Speaker 1: for people who feel forgotten and yet got made Joseph fruitful.
Speaker 1: So what's the fruit that God is bared in your life?
Speaker 1: What's He doing in your life? I'd just like to
Speaker 1: talk to you a little bit after each message and
Speaker 1: thank you. But also I want to thank you for giving.
Speaker 1: I want to thank all the people who are part
Speaker 1: of our local church for making this global ministry possible.
Speaker 1: And for those of you who are part of our Etham,
Speaker 1: thank you for being connected to us through the power
Speaker 1: of God's Word, the Gospels going forth bearing fruit all
Speaker 1: over the world. So share it with somebody. Share it
Speaker 1: with somebody. Don't just eat, plant the seed of God's
Speaker 1: word in somebody else's life. So hit, share, hit subscribe.
Speaker 1: Thank you forgiving, Thank you for being connected to this ministry.
Speaker 1: You will bear much fruit. I love you. Just see
Speaker 1: su